100 Things
by ADoubtfulGuest
Summary: A series of one hundred prompts. Theme four is work relations. It had to be done. "He's my boss. I'm allowed to sexually harass my boss."
1. 1: Romeo and Juliet

He finds her sitting out on a long forgotten bench adorning his property, having dropped her shield along with the sun.

He gives her a curious look, joining her, and says softly, "You shut up your windows, lock fair daylight out, and make yourself an artificial night."

She turns to him, wearing a gentle smile that doesn't quite reach her contradicting eyes. "Quoting human literature at me is hardly effective," she mutters, keenly avoiding his gaze.

"Romeo and Juliet," he specifies, staring off into the blackness, "Quite the star-crossed lovers, you know."

Another facade of a smile. "You're hardly Romeo."

He has to smirk at this, leaning back into the familiarity of their friendly banter, "I'm not under that impression - I'm pulling words out of his father's mouth."

He can see her relaxing as well, letting go of the recent tension that has plagued them. "Well, not quite as romantic, but alright," she jokes, the corners of her lips twitching slightly.

"I could quote Romeo, if that's how you feel," he says carefully, moving his hand so that his fingers are entwined with hers.

He can feel her tense once again at his unexpected display, and he runs his pale thumb over her tiny one.

"Do you know why doctors don't take their patients' pulses with their own thumbs?" She continues to stare away from him, knowing that he will answer his own question. "There is a vein in the thumb that is large enough to give off a pulse. They'd be feeling their own pulse, not the patient's," he pauses, as if for dramatic effect, and runs his finger over hers again, "Right now, your pulse is racing."

She lets out a shaky sigh, allowing him to pull her closer, allowing him to all but suffocate her with his presence.

Allowing him to touch his lips lightly to her own, despite the fact that the fates are not aligned. He pulls away, scrutinizing her as only he could after kissing.

"Here's much to do with hate," he whispers, "but more with love."

___

**A/N: **Yes, yes, I'm quoting Shakespeare, how cliched of me. But I love that line, I have to admit it - not that enjoying his plays is anything to regret, but, as I mentioned, it is a bit cliche.

Anyway, I haven't vanished from the fandom! Hurrah!


	2. 2: Love Lost

_They'll say it was love._

They'll say it was a cliche, a failed attempt, a hopeless gesture towards a lost cause. The afterlife is a concept, he said, a personalized theory that makes people feel more comfortable about their deaths.

They had a theory that made them feel more comfortable about their lives.

_All those feelings, those yesterday's feelings will all be lost in time._

She can feel him fade away softly, nebulous remnants of his voice plaguing her, she remains. She'd always thought they would die together, and she selfishly wishes now that they could have met a less timely fate.

Not that she's dead, but life as love lost is life without love.

_I am taking you with me, where we can contemplate our chemistry._

Build me a life, build me a love, build me meaning on which I can stand, and breathe, and smile. Take me somewhere far away, but is it even possible to get far enough? Is there anywhere where this is right?

Here, where we stand, it feels right.

_I'm still here, all that's left of yesterday._

She knows how it felt, once long ago. To be seconds to late, to feel that impossible, gravitational pull towards that blood that has become your magnetic attraction. Hide, run, close your eyes, go back.

There is no foreign element to this. She can't go back for him.

_From yesterday, it calls him, but he doesn't want to read the message._

Tell her again, make it clear, it's time to say _I told you so_. We saw this coming, she had it coming, who didn't feel this coming all along?

_Hide, run, close your eyes, go back._

She can't go back.

____

Get ready for a long note here, guys. I've got some explaining to do.

Alright, so, basically, here's the deal. My friend and I started doing a '100 theme challenge' for art, where we have 100 prompts listed for us to complete. I decided that I'd do the same for writing. The catch? **You guys can give me prompts**. I don't have them set out yet, so I'd love some suggestions from all of you.

What's a valid prompt? Anything, basically. Chapter one's prompt was Romeo and Juliet, this chapter's, I decided, would be lost love.

The italics are song lyrics from, respectively, Skyway Avenue, Yesterday's Feelings, Drop Out, Hello, and From Yesterday. The bands, in that order: We The Kings, The Used, Jack's Mannequin, Evanescence, 30 Seconds to Mars.

And I think that some of the previous reviews brought up some good points, **so I'm answering them here**:

Evie: Aha! The medical information, if anyone was wondering, is something that I looked up after hearing from the show Monk that real doctors don't take pulses with their thumbs. The info is not from House, MD!

Andaere: :D To be completely irrelevant, Robert Sean Leonard was in Much Ado About Nothing!

MidnightRainbow: Both of the quotes were from the play Romeo and Juliet; the first was said by Montague about Romeo, the second by Romeo about love :)

Liris: Yep, this is post TTP, I probably should have said something. Thanks!

Thanks also to everyone else who reviewed - wow, ten reviews. "What kind of selfish jerk wouldn't take advantage of that fact?" Props if you know where that quote's from ;)


	3. 3: Childish

He can explain complicated scientific theorems completely and accurately in the time takes you to type that same theorem into your favorite Internet search engine.

He can persuasively defend his political opinions at the slightest provocations.

He can rebut your argument faster than most of the world's best trained and highest paid lawyers.

"Artemis, I need to know. Do you like me?"

_Oh, gods. _What kind of question was that?

"Er, Holly . . ."

"I need to know," she repeats, and he swears he has absolutely no answer for her . . . not one that he's willing to unveil, at any rate.

"Umm . . . Er, well . . ." _Stuttering. Three feet tall and she has him stuttering_. "Of course I like you . . . you're, well, you're my friend . . . best friend . . . only friend, really, so I suppose-"

"_Artemis_," she says, looking at him with those strikingly mismatched eyes, "You know what I mean."

_Yes_. "No," he lies, trying to get a decent breath through his throat.

"You're going to make me say it," she states, sighing and massaging her temples, "Do you . . . like me like _that_? You know, _like _me?"

"It depends. Are we in second grade?"

She looks at him again, and he knows. He knows that there's something, unfamiliar feelings, frightening ones at that. Something about her that runs through him like a current. It's always there, always clawing at his intestines like some undiagnosed disease.

Calling it love would be breaking every rule, knocking down every barrier that's been put in place.

He gets up, brushing himself of some imaginary dust, and looks at her honestly.

He hates rules.

"_Like _is a strange term. Honestly, haven't we grown out of such formalities?" _Childish _term would be more accurate, but he's not quite up to par with his witticisms at this point in the conversation.

"You could just say that you love me," she says, smiling as he realizes that she's under no illusions of the contrary.

"Yes," he replies, sniffing, "I suppose I could."

As he walks away from her in contemplation, she realizes that she's grown used to the lack of emotions, or at least of showing them.

She knows that he'll be saying it soon enough.

___

**A/N**: Thank you, thank you, **thank you**, to my amazing beta and friend Evie (xxeviexx). She proofreads my work when I have no desire to do so, and for that she is irreplaceable :)

"Do you like me? . . . I need to know?" "No." Lies! Blasphemy! Oh, the hypocrisy! And . . . Evie, here's where you'll be right in guessing my inspiration. XD

Anyway, prompt number three, "Childish." One of my own choosing, although I did get some **great **themes from some readers which I'll definitely be using in the future - I just couldn't get this idea out of my head.

Besides Evie, I do hope someone knows where the quote is from ;)

On that note, **The Creatress **knew where the last useless, irrelevant quote was from. So, really, this is pretty predictable of me. But oh well :)

Carpe Diem!

Nikki xoxo


	4. Work Relations

"A _date_?"

"A date," she confirmed, rather impatiently, for the fifth or six time that hour, "Why's that so hard to understand?"

"Because he's _old_."

Holly sighed, she'd known that there would be disbelief among her colleagues. As expected, no one had been quite as intolerable as Trouble.

"So what?"

"So why would you want to _date _him?"

Holly shrugged, trying to convey her discontent with the current topic of interest.

"_Holly_," Trouble began again, struggling to keep up with the female captain's fast pace.

"He's my boss," she cut him off, practically growling, "I'm _allowed _to sexually harass my boss."

Trouble, having nothing to say to her statement, stood his ground and watched his friend walk out of the station. "Like watching a train wreck about to happen," he muttered gently to himself, shaking his head.

___

**A/N**: Okay, yeah, it was necessary. The whole _pout_, I'm allowed to sexually harass my boss, thing is completely hilarious, another House reference for those who don't know. That line, along with the train wreck one, belongs to the lovely show.

For those of you who are viewers, you'll be able to appreciate the fact that I almost added a "Trouble, you dated a dominatrix" line. But that would've been bad.


End file.
